Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 10:00 am  |  28 responses

Paul Pierce: NBA Lacks Balance

There’s a reason the man is known as The Truth: “I think it’s going to be a very different kind of year, man,’ Pierce said. ‘You obviously have your teams at the top, your teams in the middle. But the difference this year is that the teams at the top got better, and the teams at the bottom didn’t get any better. I think that will be a concern — that things get lopsided for teams at the top — especially going into a new collective bargaining agreement. They’re going to have to try to see how they can balance out this league, especially with the small-(market) teams that can’t get the big time players in free agency.”’

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  • Bart

    First, truer than a wombats claws

  • NUPE

    He’s right. It would be nice to see some parity in the L but without a ‘real’ salary cap & trade limitations, I don’t see it happeing. It would be ‘nice’ if teams could mark a player as ‘franchise’ that allows them to keep that player by matching any other offer. That would allow teams keep their superstars who may leave just to get to a bigger market (e.g. Lebron or Durant, maybe even Melo). I’d love to have a season where 16+ teams all seem to have a legit shot at a title and small markets have a legit chance of keeping their starts without having the media circus everytime a superstars contract comes up.

  • riggs

    coming from a man who jumped from bottom to top with only two acquisitions…

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com/ Seth

    I noticed this too. The good teams got better, but the bad teams haven’t done much. I mean Sacramento’s biggest offseason move was signing Sean May for crying out loud.

  • Jeronimo

    @ Seth: Let’s not forget they got Sergio Rodriguez too. Oh dear.

  • NUPE

    the bad teams will/can only really get better through the draft (and keeping them) because the good players would rather go to a contender leaving the guys lucky to be in the L going to the rest of the team.

  • UnRel

    @riggs.. my thoughts, exactly..

  • Michael

    the NBA is way better totally unbalanced, i would rather see 6 or 7 60 win squads and a lot of 20 win teams than watch crappy mediocre teams. The NBA is a lot more enjoyable when it is top heavy. Cuttin out 6 teams would help too.

  • samcobilibob jr.

    He’s right.

  • memyselfand9

    @riggs: boston is not a small market, though.

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  • UnRel

    ^ i think riggs is speaking on people leaving the small market to a large one.. and saying the The Truth’s recent success is based on what he, himself, is criticizing.. correct me if i’m wrong, riggs..

  • JD

    Look on the bright side this is no where near as lopsided as the Premier League

  • sab

    true indeed JD, at least there’s a notion of balance in the NBA. but i gotta agree with Michael – lose some teams! there are not enough good players to justify 30 teams in the league! at least the way it is, we get to some “some” good teams…

  • Saami

    JD is indeed right, at least the salary cap keeps teams somewhat in check, and over the course of 82 games theres a big chance of a few upsets. Whereas Chelsea are unlikely to lose to Hull next week…

  • http:///realcavsfans.com Anton

    Until you get traded you cry baby

  • http://morethanpractice.wordpress.com ja lawrence

    Condensing the League would make the competition much better. But egalitarianism is for the Commies.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Dave

    @riggs: His bad team got real better real quick. That didn’t happen this year. I think that’s his point.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Dave

    Plus, the league is too big. 22 teams will fatten up that talent pool nicely.

  • http://www.jameyburke.blogspot.com KobeWearsAPurpleThong

    @Anton I’d pretty salty if I was a Chokers…I mean Cavs fan too. lol

  • MikeC.

    It’s not an accident that good teams get better. Good teams tend to have excellent management teams and even better evaluators of talent. They also are able to take advantage of good fortune. Take the Spurs for example. David Robinson and Tim Duncan = good fortune. Tony, Manu and all the other low-pick gems are an example of talent evaluation. Picking up Richard Jefferson for next to nothing is an example of excellent management. An organization’s talent isn’t just something that appears on the court. The true talent is a blend of the front office, the coaching staff and the players. What we should all be interested in is why teams that seem to be actual professional NBA franchises continue to employ people that make horrible decision after horrible decision. Does anyone think Tim Duncan would be in the debate for the best big man of all time if he’d been drafted by the Clippers? If he didn’t blow out both knees in his first ever practice, he would have been surrounded by terrible teammates and coached by idiots. The NBA is top-heavy because all of the best basketball employees are concentrated on those same top-heavy teams. Those top-heavy teams maximize the talents of their players and win lots of games. Some even catch the right breaks at the right time and win championships.

  • MikeC.

    I also agree with contraction. The league has gotten too big and diluted the talent pool. I don’t ever want to see a player in the NBA about whom I can say “I think I can handle him for a possession or two.” When I’m drinking, I say that about just about anyone. After a bottle of rum, I’m rock-solid certain I can take Kobe off the dribble and that I have a better all-around game than Lebron. When sober, I shouldn’t ever think that I can take an NBA player. Contraction should be considered. It would make the game better.

  • MikeC.

    Also… “until you get injured you big cry baby”.

  • Cahyo

    yeah, until you get inj..wtf

  • riggs

    @Unrel: yes that was my point @Dave: so they DIDNT pick up rasheed??!? @memyselfand9: cleveland IS though regardless of how many fans lebron has.

  • GLEN DAVIS

    until you get injured you big cry baby.

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  • float_world

    Unfortunately Stern (not unlike Bettman) has the expansion at any cost gene and will push for more teams rather than shrink the league by 4-6 clubs.
    If the NBA could find a decent stadium, work out travel schedule and all the legal mumbo jumbo they would be in Barcelona or Madrid faster than The King’s Ferrari.
    Although it may not change much I like the idea of 16 best records make the playoffs regardless of conference.

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